^ On
a 16 January:
2003 Early in the morning AmeriCredit Corp. (ACF) reports, for
the quarter ended on 31 Dec 2002, a loss per share of 18 cents (6 cents
was expected), while in the same quarter a year earlier it had earnings
of 91 per share. It is also projecting that credit losses will rise during
the first half of 2003. ACF is downgraded by Wachovia from Market Perform
to Underperform. On the New York Stock Exchange, 44 million of the 153 million
ACF shares are traded, dropping from their previous close of $8.10 to an
intraday low of $3.52 and closing at $3.70. They had traded as high as $46.13
as recently as 23 April 2002 and $63.41 on 30 July 2001. AmeriCredit Corp.
is a national US consumer finance company specializing in purchasing, securitizing
and servicing automobile loans.[5~year price chart >]

2001 The tanker Jessica, carrying some 885'000
liters of fuel runs aground 500 m off San Cristobal, the easternmost Galapagos
island, and spills much of the fuel, endangering the unique Galapagos fauna
and flora. Fortunately the winds push most of the slick out to sea. Nevertheless
a study published in the 06 June 2002 Nature reveals a 60% decrease
in the population of Amblyrhynchus cristatus algae-eating marine iguanas
[< photo] in islands affected by the spill, by the end
of 2001. This is supposed to be the result of the oil killing intestinal
bacterias in the iguanas that are essential to enable them to digest seaweed.

^
2001 Twin boy guerilla leaders surrender
Johnny and Luther Htoo, 13, [center and
right on the photo, taken the next day] the twin boy leaders of a mystical
rebel movement from Myanmar surrender late in the day with some of their
followers. Hunted and hungry, 14 members of the God's Army group 
nine of them children, including the charismatic twins  turn themselves
over to Thai authorities after a year on the run along the Thai-Myanmar
border. For more than three years,
the boys fought to overthrow Myanmar's military government, and their followers
believe Johnny and Luther have magical powers that make them invincible
in battle. The boys once claimed to have several hundred followers. Last
year, the Htoo twins became icons for youthful rebellion around the world
after the widespread circulation of an Associated Press photograph showed
the angelic-looking, long-haired Johnny posing next to his tougher-looking,
cigarette-puffing brother, Luther. The boys claimed to be 12 when the picture
was taken in December 1999. The reason
for their surrender is a lack of supplies and food, and also because they
are under pressure from both Myanmar and Thai forces. Komes Daengthongdee,
the governor of Ratchaburi province, where the group surrendered said: If
they ran away from fighting, they will be considered for temporary asylum
in Thailand. But if they entered illegally, they will be charged with illegal
entry and pushed back. Two other
members of the group are being held separately, suspected of taking part
in a raid last month in which a Thai border village was looted and six villagers
were killed. About 100'000 other refugees
from Myanmar, mostly members of Myanmar's ethnic minorities, live in refugee
camps along the border with Thailand after fleeing fighting between rebel
groups and the Myanmar army. Most, if not all, of the God's Army followers
are members of Myanmar's sizable ethnic Karen minority, which has long sought
autonomy from the central government. Many Karens, like the twins, are fundamentalist
Christians, and most of the rebel groups support the pro-democracy efforts
of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. But God's Army's unsophisticated political
beliefs are mostly driven by hatred for Myanmar's army.
Thailand's military often has ignored rebel activities along the border,
but the involvement of God's Army in terrorist attacks inside Thailand has
drawn the ire of Bangkok. Both boys
looked unhealthy. Luther appeared to be very thin and Johnny seemed to have
a bloated belly. Thai doctors had examine the twins and find they are not
sick, but that some of their companions are. The other children include
two girls, two men who appear to be in their 20s, and a middle-aged woman.
The 14 God's Army members turn themselves
in at the border with Myanmar in Ratchaburi province, 100 km west of Bangkok.
God's Army first gained notoriety
after it gave refuge to another group of Myanmar dissidents who had taken
hostages at the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok in October 1999. The Thais had
allowed them to go free in exchange for releasing the captives. Several
months later, members of the same group, the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors,
took control of a Ratchaburi hospital, demanding that the Thai government
send medicine and doctors to treat ethnic Karen people injured in fighting
with Myanmar troops. Thai commandos killed all hostage-takers. Although
it was never certain that God's Army members participated in the hospital
raid, the incident made them most-wanted persons on both sides of the border.
After the raid, the Myanmar army, aided by Thai forces, ousted God's Army
from its stronghold, and they have been on the run ever since, reported
to be hiding out in villages on either side of the Thai-Myanmar border.

^
1999 Clinton impeachment trial, 3rd day: prosecution concludes.
(1) After two days of detailing facts the House managers say support the
charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, today's speakers set out
to convince the Senate that those crimes are indeed "high crimes"
and therefore merit Clinton's removal from office. Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Indiana)
leads off the rare Saturday morning session, arguing "The president's premeditated
assault on the administration of justice must be interpreted as a threat
to our system of government." Buyer rejects an argument of Clinton's defenders
that says even if the charges were true, they are trivial — what the
prosecution has dubbed the "So what?" defense. Buyer said the White House
relies on this argument because it's their only defense since they can't
dispute the facts. "This 'rise to the level' has somehow become the legal
cliche of this case. You've all so often heard it, and some of you have
even spoken it," Buyer says. Buyer warns against the "profound" consequences
of an acquittal: "Should the Senate choose to acquit it must be prepared
to accept a lower standard, a bad precedent, and a double standard."
Not buyin' what the White House is sellin' Prior standards used by the Senate
to impeach a federal judge on the grounds of perjury should apply
equally to the president, Rep. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina)
argues. "You couldn't live with yourself knowing that you were going to
leave a perjuring judge on the bench. Ladies and gentlemen, as hard as it
may be for the same reasons, cleanse this office.," Graham says.

Another articulate Clinton detractor Rep. Charles Canady (R-Florida) urges
the senators to not to look at the definition of "high crimes and
misdemeanors" narrowly. "Perjury and obstruction of justice are
akin to bribery both in their purpose and in their effect," he argues in
his speech that wrapped up the constitutional law portion of the prosecution's
three-day opening presentation. And the polls — which show the president
with sustained high approval ratings and a majority of the public opposed
to his removal from office — should not drive their decisions. "A
popular president guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors should no more
remain in office than an unpopular president innocent of wrongdoing should
be removed ... popularity is not a sufficient guide," Canady says.

The scourge of surly liberal restaurant waitresses everywhere Rep. George
Gekas (R-Pennsylvania) acknowledges that the impeachment process
is as political as it is judicial. Despite their allegiances, he
calls on each senator to do their duty. "Only the Senate and each individual
conscience will determine how that final vote is cast. We cannot account
for the friendship or enmity that might exist with and for President Clinton,"
Gekas says. He defends the work done by the 13 House managers — all
Republicans from the House Judiciary Committee — saying they were
fulfilling their constitutional duty and not out to get the president. "We
revere the presidency. Any innuendo or any kind of impulse that anyone has
to attribute any kind of motivation on the part of these men of honor who
have prepared this case for you today on any whim on their part other than
to do their constitutional duty should be rebuffed at every conversation,"
Gekas says.

“Let's hope that he didn't ad lib today: President
Bill Clinton has "violated the rule of law and thereby
broken his covenant of trust with the American people," House Judiciary
Committee Chairman Henry Hyde concludes, adding for the Senate to not remove
him from office would damage the presidency "in an unprecedented and unacceptable
way." Delivering the final word in the House prosecution's three-day opening
presentation in the Senate impeachment trial of the president, Hyde tells
the 100 US senators Saturday that his team is "convinced in conscience"
that the president is guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice and those
charges merit conviction. "These are not trivial matters. These are not
partisan matters. These are matters of justice, the justice that each of
you has taken a solemn oath to serve in this trial," Hyde says in a lofty,
historical speech. The public trust has been betrayed, Hyde says, and removal
from office is the only "remedy." To make the point, he reads a letter from
Chicago third-grader William Preston Summers who wrote: "If you cannot believe
the president, who can you believe? If you have no one to believe in, then
how do you run your life? I do not believe the president tells the truth
any more right now." "We work to make this country the kind of America they
(US veterans) were willing to die for," Hyde says, echoing Gekas' words.
"That's an America where the idea of sacred honor still has the power to
stir men's souls. My solitary, solitary hope is that 100 years from today
people will look back at what we've done and say, 'They kept the faith.'"
"I'm done," Hyde says, concluding both his quietly delivered 20-minute speech
to the hushed chamber and the managers' opening presentation.

(2) As House impeachment managers wrap up the opening salvo in their case
against President Bill Clinton, one question is being asked in Washington
and around the country — how is all of this playing with the 100 senators
who will decide his fate? In their public statements today, many senators
take great pains to note that they are reserving final judgment
until Clinton's side of the case is heard next week. A number of senators,
including some Democrats, give positive reviews to the House managers' three-day
presentation. On the other hand, one moderate Republican, Sen. James Jeffords
of Vermont, indicates that he was less than convinced by the House managers'
argument that lying under oath in a court proceeding, even to cover up a
consensual sexual affair, is impeachable. "If you say lying about a non-crime
can be converted into a high crime by the way you handle it, that sets a
pretty low standard for me," Jeffords says.

(3) House Speaker Dennis Hastert urges Republican and Democratic lawmakers
to respectfully receive President Bill Clinton when he
presents the State of the Union address Jan. 19. Hastert (R-Illinois) sends
a letter to his colleagues in the House of Representatives telling them
that Clinton's remarks should be received "soberly and with the dignity
that befits the United States Congress." In his letter, Hastert says the
State of the Union address would go ahead "out of respect for the office
of the presidency and for a desire to hear about the state of our nation."
He reminds the representatives that there are other issues in the nation
besides impeachment. "The United States of America is prosperous and free.
But storm clouds gather on our horizon. Our national security is challenged
by the continued malfeasance of Saddam Hussein. Our economic security is
challenged by a growing worldwide recession. Our future is bedeviled by
too many schools that perform poorly and by a Social Security system in
need of reform," Hastert says. "The President has the responsibility to
tell us his thoughts on how to confront these growing problems." Clinton's
speech will take place the same day his defense team opens its case. Some
lawmakers had urged the president to delay the annual address or submit
it in written form because of the trial.

(4) The president rehearses his State of the Union speech
for about four hours and will spend at least that long practicing again
tomorrow.

^1990 Soviets send troops into Azerbaijan In the wake of vicious fighting
between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in Azerbaijan, the Soviet
government sends in 11'000 troops to quell the conflict. The fighting
— and the official Soviet reaction to it — was an indication
of the increasing ineffectiveness of the central Soviet government
in maintaining control in the Soviet republics, and of Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev's weakening political power.
Strife in Azerbaijan was the result of centuries of tensions between
the Islamic Azerbaijanis and the Christian Armenians. Since the Russian
Revolution in 1917, the communist regime managed to maintain relative
peace between the two groups, but with the gradual weakening of the
Soviet Union during the late-1980s, ethnic rivalries began to re-emerge.
In its weakened state, the Soviet Union chose to only partially involve
itself in the conflict. The approach was unusual — had it occurred
under the strict communist regime of the Cold War's peak, such a tense
internal conflict would likely have been immediately and forcefully
quelled. In the latest outbreak
of violence, Armenians took the brunt of the attacks and nearly 60
people were killed. Armenian spokesmen condemned the lack of action
on the part of the Gorbachev regime and pleaded for military intervention.
Soviet officials, however, were not eager to leap into the ethnic
fray and attempted to downplay the seriousness of the situation in
the press. One Soviet official declared that the fighting in Azerbaijan
was not a "civil war," but merely "national strife."
Some Gorbachev supporters even voiced the suspicion that the violence
in the region was being stirred up by anti-Gorbachev activists merely
to discredit the regime. Gorbachev dispatched 11'000 Soviet soldiers
to quiet the situation, and the United States government supported
his action as a humanitarian response to the killings and terror.
The troops Gorbachev sent did
little to alleviate the situation — over the next two years,
ethnic violence in Azerbaijan continued, and the weakening Soviet
regime was unable to bring a lasting resolution to the situation.
Less than two years later, Gorbachev resigned from power and the Soviet
Union ceased to exist.

^1979 Shah flees from Iran.
Faced with an army mutiny and violent demonstrations against his rule,
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the leader of Iran since 1941, is forced
to flee the country for Egypt. Fourteen days later, the Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of the Islamic revolution,
returned after 15 years of exile and took control of Iran.
In August 1941, British and Soviet
troops occupied Iran, and the first Pahlavi shah (Reza Khan 16 Mar
1878  26 Jul 1944), whom they regarded with suspicion, was forced
to abdicate on 16 September 1941 in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza
Pahlavi (born on 26 October 1919). The new shah promised to act as
a constitutional monarch but often meddled in the elected government's
affairs. After a Communist plot against him was thwarted in 1949,
he took on even more powers. However, in the early 1950s, the shah
was eclipsed by Mohammad Mosaddeq, a zealous Iranian nationalist who
convinced the Parliament to nationalize Britain's extensive oil interests
in Iran. Mohammad Reza, who maintained close relations with Britain
and the United States, opposed the decision. Nevertheless, he was
forced in 1951 to appoint Mosaddeq premier, and two years of tension
followed. In August 1953, Mohammad
Reza attempted to dismiss Mosaddeq, but the premier's popular support
was so great that the shah himself was forced out of Iran. A few days
later, British and US intelligence agents orchestrated a stunning
coup d'etat against Mosaddeq, and the shah returned to take power
as the sole leader of Iran. He repealed Mosaddeq's legislation and
became a close Cold War ally of the United States in the Middle East.
In 1963, the shah launched his "White
Revolution," a broad government program that included land reform,
infrastructure development, voting rights for women, and the reduction
of illiteracy. Although these programs were applauded by many in Iran,
Islamic leaders were critical of what they saw as the westernization
of Iran. Ruhollah Khomeini, a Shiite cleric, was particularly vocal
in his criticism and called for the overthrow of the shah and the
establishment of an Islamic state. In 1964, Khomeini was exiled and
settled across the border in Iraq, where he sent radio messages to
incite his supporters. The shah
saw himself foremost as a Persian king and in 1971 held an extravagant
celebration of the 2500th anniversary of the pre-Islamic Persian monarchy.
In 1976, he formally replaced the Islamic calendar with a Persian
calendar. Religious discontent grew, and the shah became more repressive,
using his brutal secret police force to suppress opposition. This
alienated students and intellectuals in Iran, and support for Khomeini
grew. Discontent was also rampant in the poor and middle classes,
who felt that the economic developments of the White Revolution had
only benefited the ruling elite. In 1978, anti-shah demonstrations
broke out in Iran's major cities.
On 08 September 1978, the shah's security force fired on a large group
of demonstrators, killing hundreds and wounding thousands. Two months
later, thousands took to the streets of Tehran, rioting and destroying
symbols of westernization, such as banks and liquor stores. Khomeini
called for the shah's immediate overthrow, and on December 11 a group
of soldiers mutinied and attacked the shah's security officers. With
that, his regime collapsed and the shah fled.
The shah traveled to several countries before entering the United
States in October 1979 for medical treatment of his cancer. In Tehran,
Islamic militants responded on 04 November 1979 by storming the US
embassy and taking the staff hostage. With the approval of Khomeini,
the militants demanded the return of the shah to Iran to stand trial
for his crimes. The United States refused to negotiate, and 52 US
hostages were held for 444 days until the 20 January 1981 inauguration
of President Reagan. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi died in in Egypt on
27 July 1980.

1975 Se firma en Lisboa el acuerdo para la independencia
de Angola.1970 Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi becomes
premier of Libya. 1967 First black government installed
in Bahamas, as after the general elections of 1967, the Progressive Liberal
Party under the leadership of Lynden Pindling was able to form a government
with a slight majority. 1969 Soviet Soyuz 4 and
Soyuz 5 perform first transfer of crew in space.

^
1969 Agreement to open Vietnam peace talks.
An agreement is reached in Paris for
the opening of expanded peace talks. It was agreed that representatives
of the United States, South Vietnam, North Vietnam, and the National
Liberation Front would sit at a circular table without nameplates,
flags or markings. The talks
had been plagued from the beginning by procedural questions, and the
participants literally jockeyed for desirable positions at the negotiating
table. Prolonged discussions over the shape of the negotiating table
were finally resolved by the placement of two square tables separated
by a round table. Seemingly insignificant matters as the table placement
and seating arrangement became fodder for many arguments between the
delegations at the negotiations.

^1964 US President approves covert operations against
North Vietnam.
President Johnson approves Oplan 34A, operations to be conducted by
South Vietnamese forces supported by the United States to gather intelligence
and conduct sabotage to destabilize the North Vietnamese regime.
Actual operations began in February
and involved raids by South Vietnamese commandos operating under US
orders against North Vietnamese coastal and island installations.
Although American forces were not directly involved in the actual
raids, US Navy ships were on station to conduct electronic surveillance
and monitor North Vietnamese defense responses under another program
called Operation De Soto. The
Oplan 34A attacks played a major role in what became known as the
Gulf of Tonkin Incident. On 02 August 1964, North Vietnamese patrol
boats attacked the destroyer USS Maddox, which was conducting
a De Soto mission in the area. Two days after the first attack, there
was another incident that still remains unclear. The Maddox,
joined by destroyer USS C. Turner Joy, engaged what were
believed to be more attacking North Vietnamese patrol boats. Although
it was questionable whether the second attack actually happened, the
incident provided the rationale for retaliatory air attacks and the
subsequent Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which became the basis for the
initial escalation of the war in Vietnam and ultimately the insertion
of US combat troops into the area.

^
1945 Hitler descends into his bunker
Adolf Hitler takes to his underground bunker, where he remains for
105 days until he commits suicide. Hitler retired to his bunker after
deciding to remain in Berlin for the last great siege of the war.
17 meters under the chancellery (Hitler's headquarters as chancellor),
the shelter contained 18 small rooms and was fully self-sufficient,
with its own water and electrical supply. He left only rarely (once
to decorate a squadron of Hitler Youth) and spent most of his time
micromanaging what was left of German defenses and entertaining Nazi
colleagues like Hermann Goering, Heinrich Himmler, and Joachim von
Ribbentrop. Constantly at his side during this time were his companion,
Eva Braun, and his Alsatian dog, Blondi.
On April 29, Hitler married Eva in their bunker hideaway. Eva Braun
met Hitler while working as an assistant to Hitler's official photographer.
Braun spent her time with Hitler out of public view, entertaining
herself by skiing and swimming. She had no discernible influence on
Hitler's political career but provided a certain domesticity to the
life of the dictator. Loyal to the end, she refused to leave the bunker
even as the Russians closed in.
Only hours after they were united in marriage, both Hitler and Eva
committed suicide. Warned by officers that the Russians were only
about a day from overtaking the chancellery and urged to escape to
Berchtesgarden, a small town in the Bavarian Alps where Hitler owned
a home, the dictator instead chose to take his life. Both he and his
wife swallowed cyanide capsules (which had been tested for their efficacy
on his "beloved" dog and her pups). For good measure, he shot himself
with his pistol.

1925 General M. Froense replaces Leon Trotsky as head
of the War Commissariat of the USSR. 1920 First
assembly of League of Nations (Paris) 1920 18th
Amendment to the US Constitution (prohibition of the sale or transportation
of alcoholic beverages), goes into effect; (repealed by the 21st Amendment
in 1933).After one year from the ratification of this article
the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within,
the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United
States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage
purposes is hereby prohibited.  Entra en vigor en EE.UU. la "Ley
Seca", por la que se prohibía la venta y consumo de bebidas alcohólicas. 1919 Prohibition
ratified by 3/4 of the US states; Nebraska is 36th (Wyoming and Missouri,
the 37th and 38th).

^1917 The “Zimmermann
Telegram” It
is sent in code by the Foreign Secretary of the German Empire, Arthur
Zimmermann, [05 Oct 1864 – 06 Jun 1940] to the German ambassador
in Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt, whom it tells to propose to Mexico
an alliance against the US. The telegram is intercepted and decoded
by the British, who, on 23 February 1917, tell the US. It is one more
reason why the US entered World War I (06 Apr 1917). On 14 April 1917
Mexico rejects the German proposal.

Translation
of the decoded “Zimmermann Telegram"

We intend
to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare.
We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States
of America neutral. In the event of this not succeeding, we
make Mexico a proposal or alliance on the following basis: make
war together, make peace together, generous financial support
and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer
the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The settlement
in detail is left to you. You will inform the President of the
above most secretly as soon as the outbreak of war with the
United States of America is certain and add the suggestion that
he should, on his own initiative, invite Japan to immediate
adherence and at the same time mediate between Japan and ourselves.
Please call the President's attention to the fact that the ruthless
employment of our submarines now offers the prospect of compelling
England in a few months to make peace.

^1861 US Senate defeats compromise between North and
South. The Crittenden
Compromise, the last chance to keep North and South together, dies
in the US Senate. Proposed by Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky,
the compromise was a series of constitutional amendments. The amendments
would continue the old Missouri Compromise provisions of 1820, which
divided the west along the latitude of 36º30". North of this line,
slavery was prohibited. The Missouri Compromise was negated by the
Compromise of 1850, which allowed a vote by territorial residents
(popular sovereignty) to decide the issue of slavery. Other amendments
protected slavery in the District of Columbia, forbade federal interference
with the interstate slave trade, and compensated owners whose slaves
escaped to the free states.
Essentially, the Crittenden Compromise sought to alleviate all concerns
of the southern states. Four states had already left the Union when
it was proposed, but Crittenden hoped the compromise would lure them
back. Crittenden thought he could muster support from both South and
North and avert either a split of the nation or a civil war. The major
problem with the plan was that it called for a complete compromise
by the Republicans with virtually no concession on the part of the
South. The Republican Party formed in 1854 solely for the purpose
of opposing the expansion of slavery into the western territories,
particularly the areas north of the Missouri Compromise line. Just
six years later, the party elected a president, Abraham Lincoln, over
the complete opposition of the slave states. Crittenden was asking
the Republicans to abandon their most key issues.
The vote is 25 against the compromise and 23 in favor. All 25 votes
against it were cast by Republicans, and six senators from states
that were in the process of seceding abstained. One Republican editorial
insisted that the party cannot be made to surrender the fruits
of its recent victory. There would be no compromise; with the
secession of states continuing, the country marched inexorably towards
civil war.

^
1847 Fremont appointed Governor of California
A leader in the successful fight to
wrest California away from Mexico, the explorer and mapmaker John
C. Fremont briefly becomes governor of the newly won American territory.
Still only in his early mid-30s at the time, Fremont had already won
national acclaim for his leadership of two important explorations
of the West with the military's Corps of Topographical Engineers.
Shortly after the government published Fremont's meticulously accurate
maps of the Far West, they became indispensable guides for the growing
numbers of overland emigrants heading for California and Oregon. In
1845, though, the lines between military exploration and military
conquest began to blur when President James Polk sent Captain Fremont
and his men on a third "scientific" mission to explore the Rockies
and Sierra Nevada-with 60 armed men accompanying them. Polk's ambition
to take California from Mexico was no secret, and Fremont's expedition
was clearly designed to place a military force near the region in
case of war. When Mexico and
the US declared war in May 1846, Fremont and his men were in Oregon.
Upon hearing the news, Fremont immediately headed south, calling his
return "the first step in the conquest of California." When the Anglo-American
population of California learned of Fremont's arrival, many of them
began to rebel against their Mexican leaders. In June, a small band
of American settlers seized Sonoma and raised a flag with a bear facing
a five-pointed star-with this act, the revolutionaries declared the
independent Republic of California.
The Bear Flag Republic was short-lived. In August, Fremont and General
Robert Stockton occupied Los Angeles. By January 1847, they had put
down the small number of Californians determined to maintain a nation
independent of the United States. With California now clearly in the
US hands, Stockton agreed to appoint Fremont as the territorial governor.
However, a dispute broke out within the army over the legitimacy of
Fremont's appointment, and the young captain's detractors accused
him of mutiny, disobedience, and conduct prejudicial to military discipline.
Recalled to Washington for a court martial, Fremont was found guilty
of all three charges, and his appointment to take the position of
governor was revoked. Though President Polk pardoned him and ordered
him back to active duty in the army, Fremont was deeply embittered,
and he resigned from the military and returned to California a private
citizen. Although he never regained
the governorship of California, the turmoil of Fremont's early political
career did not harm his future prospects. In 1851, citizens of California
elected him a senator, and became the territorial governor of Arizona
in 1878. Today, however, Fremont's youthful accomplishments as an
explorer and mapmaker are more celebrated than his subsequent political
career.

^1832 Charles Darwin lands at San Tiago,
Cape Verde, as he wrote in Chapter I of Voyage
of the Beagle: On the
16th of January, 1832, we anchored at Porto Praya, in St. Jago, the
chief island of the Cape de Verd archipelago.
The neighbourhood of Porto Praya, viewed
from the sea, wears a desolate aspect. The volcanic fires of a past
age, and the scorching heat of a tropical sun, have in most places
rendered the soil unfit for vegetation. The country rises in successive
steps of table-land, interspersed with some truncate conical hills,
and the horizon is bounded by an irregular chain of more lofty mountains.
The scene, as beheld through the hazy
atmosphere of this climate, is one of great interest; if, indeed,
a person, fresh from sea, and who has just walked, for the first time,
in a grove of cocoa-nut trees, can be a judge of anything but his
own happiness. The island would generally be considered as very uninteresting,
but to anyone accustomed only to an English landscape, the novel aspect
of an utterly sterile land possesses a grandeur which more vegetation
might spoil. A single green leaf can scarcely be discovered over wide
tracts of the lava plains; yet flocks of goats, together with a few
cows, contrive to exist.
It rains very seldom, but during a
short portion of the year heavy torrents fall, and immediately afterwards
a light vegetation springs out of every crevice. This soon withers;
and upon such naturally formed hay the animals live. It had not now
rained for an entire year. When the island was discovered, the immediate
neighbourhood of Porto Praya was clothed with trees, the reckless
destruction of which has caused here, as at St. Helena, and at some
of the Canary islands, almost entire sterility.
The broad, flat-bottomed valleys, many
of which serve during a few days only in the season as water-courses,
are clothed with thickets of leafless bushes. Few living creatures
inhabit these valleys. The commonest bird is a kingfisher (Dacelo
Iagoensis), which tamely sits on the branches of the castor- oil plant,
and thence darts on grasshoppers and lizards. It is brightly coloured,
but not so beautiful as the European species: in its flight, manners,
and place of habitation, which is generally in the driest valley,
there is also a wide difference.

1809 El ejército francés de chegru occupies Utrecht Netherlands. 1786 The Virginia Legislature adopted the Ordinance of
Religious Freedom, which guaranteed that no man would be forced to attend
or support any church. This mandate later became the model for the First
Amendment to the US Constitution. 1777 Vermont
declares independence from NY 1776 Continental
Congress approves enlistment of free blacks 1756
England and Prussia sign Treaty of Westminster.1716
Se promulga en Madrid el Decreto de Nueva Planta para Cataluña.
1581 English parliament passes laws against Catholicism 1556 Emperor Charles V abdicates throne of Spain in favor
of his son Philip II

1531 So-called Reformation Parliament's second sitting
(it had first met in November 1529). Henry VIII had turned to the authority
of the state to obtain the annulment of his marriage. The Reformation Parliament
was unprecedented — it lasted seven years, enacted 137 statutes (32
of which were of vital importance), and legislated in areas that no feudal
Parliament had ever dreamed of entering. "King in Parliament" became the
revolutionary instrument by which the medieval church was destroyed. 1493 Columbus returns to Spain from his first trip

^ Deaths
which occurred on a 16 January:2004 Ghulam Rasool Dar (aka Ghazi Naseebuddin), 47, and
Fayaz Ahmad Dar, shot by Indian troops who were seeking
them in Zainakote, on the edge of Srinagar, Indian-occupied Kashmir. Rasool
was the top operations commander of the Hizbul
Mujahideen fighters against Indian occupation. Ahmad was the Hizb's
chief financial controller and publicity head.2004 Riaz Ahmed
Malik, shot by the Indian troops in a clash in Anantnag, Indian-occupied
Kashmir. He was a Hizbul Mujahideen commander active in southern Kashmir.2004 Asif Mairaj, killed by Indian troops in the Anantnag
district, of Indian-occupied Kashmir. He was the deputy chief commander
of the Al-Badr
fighters for liberating Kashmir from Indian occupation and uniting it to
Pakistan2003
Five persons by a car bomb of the FARC exploding in a parking lot
adjacent to a state prosecution office in Medellín, Colombia. 2003 Alfred Kantor, of Parkinson's disease, Jewish artist,
born in Prague on 07 November 1923. Author of The Book of Alfred Kantor
(1971) with his reminiscences and 127 watercolors and sketches of life in
the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz, Theresienstadt, and Schwarzheide.
— an image2002 Richard Boeken, 57, of lung cancer. In June 2001 he
had won against Philip Morris a $3 billion damage award, which was later
reduced to $100 million. But he did not collect as Philip Morris is appealing
the reduced award, which it called "grossly excessive." Boeken, a former
oil and securities dealer, took up smoking at 13 and smoked at least two
packs of Marlboro cigarettes a day for more than 40 years.Any damage award
after the appeal would go to Boeken's estate.
^
2001 Laurent-Désiré Kabila[photo >],
63, president of Congo, from wounds received in Kinshasa, as a young bodyguard,
Rashidi Mizele, leaning in as if to whisper something into the presidential
ear, shoots Kabila in the head, back, and right leg. The Congolese government
would deny the fact until 18 January when it would announce that Kabila's
death as having occured on the 18th at 10:00. On 17 January the Cabinet
would intall his son, Joseph Kabila,29, head of the armed forces, as interim
president. On 20 January Laurent Kabila's body would be flown back from
Zimbabwe, where he had been taken for treatment. Kabila
was born on 1 January 1938. He had been fighting a civil war since August
1998, when rebel forces backed by Kabila's former allies, Rwanda and Uganda,
turned against him. In the war's early stages, the rebels reached the outskirts
of Kinshasa before being turned back by Kabila's army, which got the suppor
of Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Kabila
came to power in May 1997 following a Uganda- and Rwanda-sponsored rebellion
against former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled the nation then called
Zaire. The world community initially welcomed Kabila, who, many hoped, would
be a vast improvement over Mobutu's decades-long rule, which left his nation
desperately broke and with an infrastructure that barely functioned.
But Kabila quickly alienated himself, inviting
close friends and relatives into the government, angering investors and
obstructing a United Nations investigation of reports that his army, in
its rebel days, had slaughtered thousands of Hutu refugees. In 2000 Kabila's
government signed a peace agreement with the new rebel movements, but fighting
continued and each side has consistently accused the other of violations.
2001 Zhang Zhanguo, executed, a farmer from central
Henan province, China, guilty of stabbing a neighbor to death with a kitchen
knife during an argument in November 1999 2001 Pan Huanjie,
executed, Beijing driver, guilty in the 1999 stabbing death of a man he
and an accomplice had quarreled with over repairs to electrical equipment.
2001 Zhang, executed in China, which leads the world
in judicial executions. [but my guess is that, in proportion to population,
Texas has more].2001 Mourshed Rafiq Suleiman,
is found murdered. He was a Palestinian, from the Ajah village in the West
Bank, suspected of collaborating with Israel. He had been seized from his
home by masked men late the previous day. 2001 Sergio Moreno,
22, musician, of injuries he suffered when trapped for 31 hours under cinderblocks
and dirt of his buried house, after the 13 January 17:33 UT Salvador earthquake
He was the last survivor pulled from the rubble after he used his cellular
phone to call for help.

^
2001 Stormy, 4, bottlenose dolphin, after acting strangely
for a few days and stopping eating since the previous day, at the Mystic,
Connecticut, Aquarium, where he had lived with other dolphins in their
1600 cubic meter pool, since he was nursed back to health after being rescued
on 16 September 1998 when he came ashore on a beach in Port Aransas, Texas,
shark bitten, bleeding and in critical condition.

Stormy
was probably separated from his mother during Tropical Storm Frances. Because
dolphins usually stay with their mother for two years it appears Stormy,
then 18 months old, was unable to feed himself. Stormy was not released
back into the wild because he was not fully weaned at the time he was separated
from his mother and would not know how to find food for himself. Stormy's
saga was considered remarkable because only 5 percent of all whales and
dolphins that wash ashore survive.

In
December 1999, Stormy had been diagnosed with osteomyelitis in his tail
vertebrae. It took several months of treatment to improve his condition.

In March 2000, Deb Adamson, public
relations director of the Mystic Aquarium, had published a children's book
about Stormy: Stormy The Baby Dolphin / A Gulf Coast Rescue, and
Dorothy Hernandez published Stormy the Dolphin.

2000 Dionisio Gamallo Fierros, escritor español.1989 Two Blacks on a motorcycle, in crash when a policeman
shoots the driver. Three days of rioting ensue in Miami.1982
Ramón J. Sender, escritor español.1980 Benjamín
Palencia, pintor español.1970 Francisco Gutiérrez
Cossío “Pancho Cossío”, Spanish painter born
in Cuba on 20 October 1894 (1884?), who painted mostly marine scenes, still
lifes, and portraits.  MORE
ON COSSÍO AT ART 4 JANUARY with links to images.

^
1969 “Vernon Duke”,
US composer born Vladimir Aleksandrovich Dukelsky on 10 October 1903
in Russia. He is remembered for his sophisticated melodies for films,
Broadway musicals, and revues. Among his most popular songs are “April
in Paris” from the revue Walk a Little Faster (1932)
and “I Can't Get Started” from Ziegfeld Follies of
1936. After studying at the
Kiev Conservatory, Dukelsky at age 16 fled the Russian Revolution
and settled in Constantinople (now Istanbul). Impressed upon hearing
George Gershwin's “Swanee,” he developed a lasting interest
in US popular music. In 1921 he went to the United States and met
Gershwin, who suggested the Americanization of his name and advised
him, “Do not be scared about going low-brow.” However,
Duke returned to Europe and concentrated on classical music, composing
the ballet Zéphyr et Flore (1925) for Serge Diaghilev's
Ballets Russes as well as two symphonies.
Duke settled in the United States in 1929, and throughout the 1930s
he composed background music for films and theatrical productions.
His lyricists included John Latouche, E.Y. Harburg, Ira Gershwin,
Ogden Nash, and Howard Dietz. His song “Banjo Eyes” was
adopted by the comedian Eddie Cantor as his theme. In 1940 Duke received
critical acclaim for his score for Cabin in the Sky, a musical
with an all-black cast that featured Ethel Waters (filmed in 1943).
In 1944 Duke composed the score to
Sadie Thompson. He translated American popular songs into
Russian for Radio Liberty broadcasts to the Soviet Union; wrote his
autobiography, Passport to Paris (1955); and in 1957 composed
music for the Broadway production of Time Remembered of Jean
Anouilh.1969 Jan Palach, estudiante, se quema
vivo en la plaza Wenzel, de Praga, en protesta por la ocupación soviética
de Checoslovaquia y la supresión de las libertades individuales. 1967 Robert Jemison van der Graaff, 65, US physicist,
inventor of the Van de Graaff generator, a type of high-voltage electrostatic
generator that serves as a type of particle accelerator. This device
has found widespread use not only in atomic research but also in medicine
and industry. 1950 Gustav Krupp, industrial
y financiero alemán.

^1940 Day 48 of Winter War: USSR aggression against
Finland.
More deaths due to Stalin's desire to grab Finnish territory.
Finland to receive a wagonload of food aid from Denmark Central
Isthmus: heavy enemy shelling pounds the defences on the Mannerheim
Line in Summa.
Ladoga Karelia: in temperatures of
-41° Celsius, a small Finnish detachment attacks and halts the enemy
advance at the edge of Mursula village in Kitilä.
The Finnish aid agency Suomen Huolto
grants 800'000 markkaa in aid to victims of the bombing in the towns
of western Finland.
Abroad: a special Finnish day is to
be held at the Holmenkollen skiing games in Oslo to raise money for
Finland.
A Danish association of factory-owners
is sending a railway wagonload of food aid to Finland.
United States President, Franklin D.
Roosevelt says the USA can extend a non-military loan to Finland as
this would in his opinion not compromise US neutrality.
The Swiss Medical Association announces
it is to send a group of volunteers to FinlandRautatievaunullinen tanskalaisia säilykkeitä
Suomeen Talvisodan 48. päivä, 16.tammikuuta.1940 Vihollinen
pommittaa raskaalla tykistöllä Mannerheim-linjan puolustuslaitteita
Summassa.
Pieni suomalaisosasto hyökkää 41 asteen
pakkasessa Kitilän Mursulan kylän laitaan, mihin vihollisen eteneminen
pysähtyy.
Suomen Huolto myöntää 800'000 markkaa
Länsi-Suomen kaupunkien pommituksista kärsimään joutuneille.
Ulkomailta: Holmenkollenin kisojen
yhteydessä päätetään järjestää erityinen Suomen päivä, jonka tulot
lähetetään Suomeen.
Tanskalainen tehtailijoiden yhdistys
lähettää rautatievaunullisen säilykkeitä Suomeen.
Yhdysvaltain presidentti Franklin Delano
Roosevelt in mielestä Suomelle voitaisiin myöntää siviililuottoa.
Siviililuotto ei loukkaisi hänen mielestään USA:n puolueettomuutta.
Sveitsin lääkäriliitto ilmoittaa lähettävänsä
vapaaehtoisryhmän Suomeen.

1936
Albert Fish, 73, in the Sing Sing electric chair, saying "It will
be the supreme thrill, the only one I haven't tried.". The "Moon Maniac"
is believed to have killed and eaten 10 children, including in 1928 Grace
Budd, 12, of which he was found guilty. His other thrills included self-torture
and self-debasement, and boasting about it all.1922 Pierre
René Jean Baptiste Henri Brocard, born on 12 May 1845,
French army officer who studied meteorology but is best remembered as a
mathematician for his work on the triangle. The Brocard
points of a triangle ABC are O, O' where OAB, OBC and OCA and the angles
O'BA, O'CB and O'AC are equal. [Draw a circle tangent to AC at A passing
through B; another tangent to BC at C passing through A; a third tangent
to BA at B passing through C. They are concurrent at O.] Angle OAB is called
the Brocard angle and satisfies cot OAB = cot A + cot B + cot C. Brocard
arrived at his discovery from the study of the problem of the three dogs
chasing one another, all three at the same speed. Brocard generalized, the
dogs running at different speeds, yet still meeting at one (Brocard) point..
1916 Ulpiano Checa y Sanz, Spanish artist born on
03 April 1860.1906 Arnold Böcklin, Swiss Symbolist
painter born on 16 October 1827.  MORE
ON BÖCKLIN AT ART 4 JANUARY with links to images.1886 Piotr Petrovitch Veretshchagin
(or Weretschagin), US (!) artist born in 1836. 1834 Hachette,
mathematician.1794 Edward Gibbon, English rationalist
historian and scholar born on 08 May (27 April Julian) 1737.  GIBBON
ONLINE: The
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume I(17 Feb 1776),Volume
II(1781),Volume
III(1781),Volume
IV , Volume
V , Volume
VI(with IV and V on 08 May 1788). This is the work for which he
is known, a continuous narrative from the 2nd century to the fall of Constantinople
in 1453. He finished writing it on 27 June 1787. He attributes the decline
of the Roman Empire to the rise of Christianity (in which he did not believe)1668 Charles-Alphonse Defresnoy, French artist born in
1611.1606Baltasar de Alcázar, poeta satírico español.1219 Thousands die in floods in Northern Netherlands after
storm.

^
0308 Marcellus
I30th pope [308-309],
. The tyrannical emperor Maxentius
had this pope seized and sent into exile. This took place at the end
of 308 or the beginning of 309 according to the "Catalogus Liberianus",
which gives the length of the pontificate as no more than one year,
six (or seven) months, and twenty days. Marcellus died shortly after
leaving Rome, and was venerated as a saint. His feast-day was 16 January,
according to the "Depositio episcoporum" of the "Chronography" of
354 and every other Roman authority. Nevertheless, it is not known
whether this is the date of his death or that of the burial of his
remains, after these had been brought back from the unknown quarter
to which he had been exiled. He was buried in the catacomb of St.
Priscilla where his grave is mentioned by the itineraries to the graves
of the Roman martyrs as existing in the basilica of Saint-Silvester.

^ Births
which occurred on a 16 January:2005
Eliza Maria Iliescu, by caesarean section, in Bucharest, Romania,
the lone survivor of three products of in vitro fertilization implanted
33 weeks earlier into the womb of Adriana Iliescu [31 May 1938~], who thus
becomes (until 29
December 2006) the oldest woman to give birth. —(100115) 1974
Jaws, Peter Benchley's novel from which Stephen Spielberg
made a movie
in 1975 [picture >], is published.1942Nicole
Fontaine, presidenta del Parlamento Europeo.1938
José Manuel Vilabella Guardiola, escritor español.
^
1933 Susan Sontag, novelist and essay writer, in New York
City in 1933. Sontag's parents lived
in China, where her father was a fur trader, but Sontag's mother returned
to the United States for her daughter's birth and left the newborn with
relatives. After her father's death, when Sontag was a toddler, her mother
returned to the States and remarried. The family moved to Arizona, then
Southern California, where Sontag attended North Hollywood High. A fiercely
intellectual student, Sontag went on to the University of California at
Berkeley, then attended the University of Chicago and Harvard, getting a
doctorate in English literature and philosophy. Along the way, she married
(at age 17), had a son (at age 19), and divorced (at age 26). She also began
publishing essays and writing fiction
At age 30, she sent off the manuscript of her first book, The Benefactor,
addressed simply to "The Fiction Editor" at Farrar Straus Giroux. The publishing
house immediately bought the novel for a $500 advance, and she remained
with the same publisher for decades. Her 1964 essay, "Notes on Camp," published
in the Partisan Review, made her a celebrity at age 31, when she
defined the appeal of camp culture. She published another novel, Death
Kit, in 1967 but turned her attention toward essays, nonfiction, and
politics in the late 60s and 70s. She lived in Europe from 1968 to 1974.
Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1972, she turned her illness into her best-known
work, Illness as Metaphor (1977). In 1992, she surprised her readers
with a historical romance, The Volcano Lover, set in 18th-century
Naples. She lived in New York.
1931 Johannes Rau, presidente de Alemania.1930 Norman Podhoretz, author-editor.1928
William Kennedy, author.1922 Luis Echeverría Álvarez,
político mejicano. 1920 Bill
Boone, mathematician. 1911 Eduardo Frei
(Christian Democrat), President of Chile (1964-70) 1901
Fulgencio Batista President / Dictator of Cuba (1933-44, 1952-59).
He died on 06 August 1973. 1887 George Kelly, US
playwright and actor who died on 18 June 1974.1885 Michel
Plancherel, Swiss mathematician who died on 04 March 1967.
—(061020) 1885 Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz president
of Poland (1939-1940) 1883 The US Civil Service Commission
is established.1881 Sir Arthur Fleming,
English engineer who died on 14 September 1960.1874 Robert
Service, Canadian verse writer [not poet ???] who died
on 11 September 1958. 1853 André Michelin France,
industrialist/tire manufacturer (Michelin)1850 "Pierre Loti"
(Louis M. J. Viaud), escritor francés.1824 Seymour
Joseph Guy, English US painter and printmaker who died on 10 December
1910. — links to
images. 1801 Clausen,
mathematician.1759 British Museum opens in London.1754 Paul-Théodor van Brussel, Dutch artist who died in
1795.1752 George Cabot, US Federalist leader who
died on 18 April 1823..1749 Vittorio Alfieri, Italian
poet who died on 08 October 1803. 1675 Louis
de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, French soldier and
writer, who died on 02 March 1755. His Mémoires
are an important historic document of his time as seen from Versailles.
His father, Claude
de Rouvroy [16 Aug 1607 – 03 May 1693], was raised to the nobility
by Louis XIII [27 Sep 1601 – 14 May 1643] in 1635. The young Saint-Simon
began his career with honorable military service (1691–1702); during this
period he began a fragmentary diary. He fell out of royal favor, however,
when he publicly opposed the policy of Louis XIV [05 Sep 1638 – 01
Sep 1715] that reduced the power of the nobility. Saint-Simon was briefly
connected with Louis, Duke de Bourgogne, who was dauphin from 1711 until
his death in 1712. Saint-Simon then turned to Philippe
II, duc d'Orléans [02 Aug 1674 – 02 Dec 1723], who became regent
for Louis XV [15 Feb 1710 – 10 May 1774] when Louis XIV died. The
regent appointed Saint-Simon to his council of regency (1715-1718) and sent
him on a diplomatic mission to Spain in 1721. Upon the regent's death, Saint-Simon
retired from the court. From 1729 to 1738 Saint-Simon annotated the Journal
of Philippe de Courcillon, Marquis de Dangeau [21 Sep 1638 – 09 Sep
1720], a work that provided a framework for his own memoirs, begun about
10 years later. Saint-Simon produced, in 2854 handwritten pages, a composite
narrative of court life based upon his own memory and papers, oral and written
testimony from his fellow courtiers, and other sources. Saint-Simon's life
at court limited his perspective, however, and consequently his memoirs
overemphasized personalities and petty intrigue. Nonetheless, he presents
an unforgettable picture of the last years of Louis XIV and the regency
period. The Mémoires were suppressed by the authorities
and were first published in 1819 (20 volumes).

Santos Fulgencio y Marcelo / Pape en 308, Saint Marcel doit faire
face aux persécutions romaines. Il est lui-même réduit par l'empereur Maxence
à l'état de palefrenier.
TIDBITS FROM TINIBRAINLAND:
A Tinibrainer out for a drive in the country sees on a roadside sign: 20
HECTARES FOR SALE  WILL DIVIDE and a phone number. Interested, he
calls the number and says: May I speak with Mr. Divide?

Thought for the day:There is only one success  to be able to spend
your life in your own way.  Christopher Morley, US journalist
[1890-1957]There is only one excess  to spend your life away.